So, you’re following the advice of experts and the CDC and avoiding outdoor activities in the areas where wildfire smoke is posing a threat to your  and your family’s health.  So, now what?  Here are some activities from handsonaswegrow.com and a MORS crew member that can still wear out the youngsters (and you) while still getting exercise as if you were outside:

1. Scavenger hunt for textures, do it inside! Just because it’s not nature, doesn’t mean your house isn’t full of textures! Try finding a something soft, smooth, bumpy, grainy, gooey and so on in your home.
2. Roll down the hills. Okay, maybe not the hills, but see who can roll all the way across a room. I bet its harder to stay straight to get across then they think!
3. Set up a balance beam in the hallway or room to walk across. If you don’t have a board, a line of tape works well too.
4. Just because you aren’t outside doesn’t mean you can’t go fishing….fill up the bathtub and have the kiddos make their own fishing poles with magnets on the end.  Arts and crafts and fishing time!
5. Tape out a maze on the floor for the kids to drive their cars and trucks through. Or just any kind of track would be fun!
6. Instead of painting the driveway with water, paint the chalkboard if you have one! Or set out a piece of cardboard to paint with water.
7. Put up a tent inside!  You may be indoors, but you can still camp!  Turn a fan on for some wind….get some outdoorsy sounds for the background and grab the sleeping bags and flashlights for a living room camp-out!
8. How about sending the kids on a scavenger hunt for items starting with each letter of the alphabet–indoors, of course.  Designate a certain amount of time for each letter.  That could be an all-nighter!
9. Bean bag tosses are fun.  Whether you use pots to toss plastic baggies of rice in (that the kids make themselves) or just tape boundaries.
10. Talk about the outdoors!  Ask the kids what they are most excited about when the smoke clears, and get them pumped up for hunting, trapping and fishing. Talk about ethics involved with hunting, fishing trapping.  Talk about wildlife and play identification games such as tracks (you can find on the internet)–after all, they the future of hunting, fishing and trapping.